I've got an old Lombard, and I'm wondering just how feasible it would be to make this into a tablet. This will be my first mod, so I'm charging blindly forward. I would like the computer to be a laptop at times, and a tablet at others. I realize that a Lombard probably isn't the best laptop for this concept — an iBook or PowerBook would probably be better — but a Lombard is what I've got.

Anyway, several questions. Where do I find a touchscreen that will work in this laptop? How exactly do I get the touchscreen to work? Is my wild idea even possible?

Well, I've done the tablet conversion to a Pismo (Which is essentially the same design) save the touch screen and regular use. The person who made the iBook Tablet used Troll Touch (http://www.trolltouch.com/products.html) And said they were good. Since mine was supposed to be a media station, it's IR controlled, so I didn't need that.

It's very possible. I'm in the midst of writing/finishing my Tablet, and it's coming a long quite nicely. Do you want the screen flip ability? Or would you be satisfied with the touch screen tablet?

What I really want (that's the major challenge) is the flip screen ability. I want something versatile — not permanently a tablet, like the ModBook.

I have found used touchscreens for sale on eBay for around $60 or $70, which seemed much cheaper than Troll Touch. (Who didn't seem to support Lombards when I checked, either that or they were much more expensive than I thought they were going to be.) The thing I'm wondering about that is how to a) extend the cable between the motherboard and the inverter board and b) what other parts, if any, are needed to allow a touchscreen to be recognized?

Well, there's a USB driver board usually. You can directly solder that onto the logic board USB port, or to a hub. Whichever is to your liking. And extending the inverter is cake, just make sure you match the wires correctly when you extend them. I'm not sure if there is an upper limit on wire length, but I highly doubt it.

There are tons of touch screens out there, the hardest thing would be finding one that is Mac compatible (besides having the right size, of course.. Since the Lombard is a 14.1 it really shouldn't be hard.)

There is always the Wacom integration option. There is quite a good amount of room in the Lombard screen housing.

I think you may want a more durable LVDS cable as the Wallstreet/Lombard/Pismo ones tend to be a bit flimsy and can tear extremely easily. The inverter itself is housed in the body and not in the screen housing, so you may be able to get away with just extending the wires for the backlight bulb. (inverter out)

[Just a sidenote... I'm positive the ModBook is a slate tablet, not a switchable tablet.]

I think a good start would be to examine the designs of some pre-existing switchable tablets, to get your hinge/slide design down pact. It may be quite tricky. Good luck!

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